1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information search method and apparatus for easily searching and selecting a desired piece of information from a large number of pieces of information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some audio apparatuses employ a compact, large-capacity data storage medium, such as a memory chip or a hard disk, to record a large number of pieces of audio data (e.g. tracks of music) that are compressed using the MP3 standard or the like. In the case of portable audio apparatuses, the compact size allows users to carry them around and enjoy the recorded audio data anytime and anywhere. On-vehicle audio apparatuses also often have a large-capacity data storage medium, such as a hard disk, to allow users to listen to a desired music track by selecting it from a large number of music tracks stored therein. On-vehicle audio apparatuses and household audio apparatuses may also be configured to allow portable audio players or the like to connect thereto in a wired or wireless manner so as to allow the user(s) to listen to desired music by selecting it from a large number of music tracks stored on a data storage medium of the portable audio player(s).
During selection of a desired piece of music from a large number of pieces of music, information associated with the music tracks, such as artist names, genre names, song/track titles (names), and album titles (names), may be used. With such an arrangement, the user can select a desired music track by, for example, directly entering its music title into a search field to search a list of music titles. This scheme, however, involves significant time and effort. Thus, a list of track titles for all recorded music tracks may be created, and a portion of a list of all the recorded music tracks may be displayed on a screen in a scrollable manner. In this way, the user may select a desired piece of music by scrolling through the list by, for example, giving an instruction/input using a remote controller or touching a touch panel or button on the screen.
Such a scheme for sequentially displaying information through scrolling makes it much easier to select a desired piece of information than a scheme that involves manual input of the desired music track. Further, it is more convenient since the user can find the desired piece of information without having to accurately remember the title or the like of the desired music track. In many cases, however, audio apparatuses as described above may hold as many as 10,000 pieces of music, and the number of artists and/or groups may also exceed several hundreds. Thus, when information, for example, a large number of pieces of music and/or a large number of artists, is displayed on a small screen and is scrolled to search for a desired music track as described above, if the desired music track exists near the bottom of the list it may take a long time to locate it. Also, when the displayed information is scrolled through at high speed, the user is likely to miss the desired music track during the scrolling operation. Thus, it is difficult to use such a searching scheme.
In an effort to resolve such deficiencies, Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Registration Application Publication No. 5-96869 discloses a technology in which, when a user specifies, for example, the letter “M” in a large number of pieces of information arranged in a predetermined order, such as an alphabetical order, pieces of information having the initial letter “M” can be selected and displayed. With this search scheme, however, it is necessary to ensure that at least the initial letters of the pieces of information are stored and associated therewith. In addition, the search method still requires having to select desired information through a scrolling operation or the like after selecting the initial letter of a specific word for the desired piece of information. Thus, as described above, when a significantly large number of pieces of information exist, a problem exists in that it takes a significant amount of time to locate the desired piece of information.
As a scheme for overcoming the above-described problem, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-230951, which is assigned to the Alpine Electronics, Inc., the assignee of the present application, discloses an information selecting technology. In this technology, a display bar indicating 0 to 100% is provided on a screen, and when a user touches an arbitrary percentage portion thereon, a predetermined number of pieces of information centered about the touched percentage portion are extracted and displayed in numerical order. At this point, the initial letters of the pieces of information are then displayed in alphabetical order so that the user may select a desired piece of information therefrom.
As disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-230951, even when a significantly large number of pieces of information exist, a user can give an instruction based on an assumption about an approximate location of the desired information, and can select the desired information from pieces of information in the vicinity of the assumed location. Such technology allows the user to more quickly select desired information than the above-described scheme in which the initial letter of a specific word is simply specified. With this technology, the user specifies a specific percentage portion displayed on a percentage display bar, and a predetermined number of pieces of information that are centered about the specified portion are presented to the user. Thus, when a desired piece of information does not exist in the presented information, the user must repeat the same operation many times through trial and error when searching for the desired piece of information. Accordingly, it is desired to develop a scheme for more quickly, easily, and accurately searching for desired information.
Such an information search scheme may be performed not only for selecting a music track, an artist, or the like in an audio apparatus, as described above, but also for, for example, a navigation apparatus in which a destination is selected by selecting information from large number of location names, facility names, company names, personal names, and so on. In the case of navigation apparatuses, problems similar to those described above in connection with searching for audio tracks also arise. In addition, when searching for a desired telephone number or the like from a large number of pieces of information, it is apparent that similar problems arise.